


Avian Cloning

by Glishara



Category: WordWorld
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-23
Updated: 2010-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-14 00:09:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glishara/pseuds/Glishara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is a bright and sunny day in  Word World, but when Duck accidentally sits on the letter S, it casts a shadow for all of the Word Friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Avian Cloning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Grevling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grevling/gifts).



It was a bright and sunny day in Word World. Duck and Frog were playing basketball.

“Pass it here, Frog!” Duck cried, flapping his wings and flying up beside the basket.

Frog jumped up as high as he could and threw the B-A-L-L. Duck caught it and dropped it into the basket, then dropped back down to the ground.

“Great job, Duck!” Frog said.

“Thank you, Frog!” Duck replied. “I just love playing basketball.”

“Me, too,” said Frog.

Duck ran to get the ball, and Frog took a moment to look around. Over the hill, he could see more of their Word Friends coming. “Look, Duck!” he said. “Bear and Dog are coming.”

“Oh, goodie!” said Duck. “Maybe they can play, too. Hi, Bear!”

Bear waved from the top of the hill, then rode down it on her T-R-I-C-Y-C-L-E. “Whee!” she said, zooming towards them. She neatly stopped the tricycle at the bottom of the hill. “Hello, Frog. Hello, Duck. Are you two playing basketball?”

“We sure are!” said Duck. “Do you want to play, too?”

“I’d love to!” said Bear. “But Sheep is coming just behind me, and Pig and Ant said they might come by, too. Will that be too many players?”

“Hmmm,” said Frog. “That is a lot of people. And we only have one ball.”

“Arf!” said Dog, wagging his tail.

“Do you have an idea, Dog?” asked Frog.

Dog barked again, then bounded off the basketball court. “Wait!” Duck yelled. “Where are you going?”

“Why don’t we go find out?” suggested Bear.

“Great idea!” said Frog.

So the three Word Friends followed Dog off of the basketball court and into the forest. Dog was digging in the ground under a T-R-E-E.

“What are you looking for, Dog?” asked Frog.

Dog barked excitedly, then leaned into the hole and came out holding the letter S.

“Of course!” said Frog. “With the letter S, we can turn B-A-L-L into B-A-L-L-S, and have lots of balls!”

“Oh, goody!” said Duck. “Then we can all play!”

So they took the letter S back to the basketball court, where Dog placed it carefully on the ground.

“Should we warm up?” Bear asked. So they all took turns throwing the ball to one another.

“I am pooped!” Duck announced after a minute. “Basketball playing is hard work. I’m going to sit down and take a niiiice break.”

Frog saw the danger too late. “Duck, no!”

But Duck was already sitting down on the letter S.

“QUACK QUACK!”

“QUACK QUACK!”

“QUACK QUACK!”

Before anyone could react, the air was full of yellow feathers.

“DUUUUUCK!” yelled Frog.

But now there was not just one Duck. There were six Ducks, all of them flapping around in alarm.

“What happened to me?” cried Duck.

“Who are you?” Duck asked Duck.

“I’m Duck! Who are you?” Duck answered.

“You’re not Duck! I’m Duck!”

“I’m so confused!”

“I’m scared!”

“FROG, HELP!” Ducks chorused in unison.

“Calm down!” Frog said, hopping over to the flock of Duck. “Duck, you sit over there.”

But when he pointed at a R-O-C-K, ALL of the Ducks moved that way.

“Rih-it!” Frog croaked. “Stop!”

“Is everything all right?” Everyone turned to look up towards the new voice. Pig and Sheep were standing on the top of the hill. It was Pig who had spoken.

“We have a little problem,” Frog said sheepishly (but not Sheepishly). “Duck sat on an S.”

“And it did that to him?” Sheep asked in disbelief.

“Oh, no!” Pig cried. “What happened?”

“Well, it’s a little complicated,” Frog began.

“Never fear!” cried Sheep. “We’ll untangle it, with the help of –“

She dashed off suspensefully, and zipped back a split second later wearing a tweed J-A-C-K-E-T with leather patches on the elbows.

“-- Research Professor Sheep!”

“Ooookay,” Frog said.

“Now,” said Research Professor Sheep, “what were our experimental conditions today?”

It was no use arguing with Sheep when she wanted to play dress-up, so Frog decided to play along. “Well, Research Professor Sheep, when Duck sat on an S, it turned D-U-C-K into D-U-C-K-S. I think he accidentally discovered avian cloning!”

“Avie-huh Whating?” four Ducks asked together. The other two just said, “Huh?”

Everyone ignored them.

“But wouldn’t cloning just make another duck, not another Duck?” asked Research Professor Sheep. “I thought that duplicating consciousnesses was a fallacy about cloning.”

“Sheep!” Frog scolded. “This is a children’s show. You can’t use logic.”

“Oh, dear!” Sheep said. “I’m sorry, Frog. You’re right. But what should we do?”

“Which one’s the real Duck?” Bear asked, eying the flock nervously.

“I am!” cried five of the Ducks in unison. The other Duck said, “Me!”

“They all are,” said Frog. “That’s the problem. They’re exact copies, so there is nothing to separate the copies from the original. In a sense, they’re all the original.”

“We can’t all be the original!” said Duck and Duck.

Duck, Duck, and Duck said, “Well, you sure aren’t!”

“I am!” said Duck.

“No, I am!” said Duck, Duck, Duck, and Duck.

“My head hurts,” moaned Duck.

“Quack quack!” agreed Duck.

“Quiet!” cried Frog.

The Ducks stopped quacking and settled on the ground.

“Well, we can’t go on like this,” Pig said.

“Should we take five of them apart?” asked Bear.

They all looked at the six Ducks. The six Ducks looked back at them, wide-eyed, then all tried to hide behind the other five. In the end, all six of them stood in a circle with their heads tucked in toward the middle and their tail feathers sticking up.

Frog sighed. “Duck, no one’s going to take you apart,” he said, with long-suffering patience.

“Hey, look,” said Bear. “That little Duck has a feather on his back.”

“Quack quack quack!” said two of the Ducks. “Which one?” said another. They all craned to see.

“That one there,” said Pig. “It’s a funny looking feather.”

“Bear!” Frog said. “That’s it! That’s no feather! That’s the letter S!”

“Aha!” said Research Professor Sheep. “I surmise that the solution is to remove the S, turning Ducks back into Duck!”

“Great idea, Sheep,” said Frog.

“Research Professor Sheep,” said Research Professor Sheep.

“Sorry,” said Frog.

“But how do we get the S off?” asked Bear.

“Arf!” said Dog.

“Dog is right,” said Frog. “We should be able to just pull it off.”

“But what if the K came with it?” Duck, Duck, Duck, and Duck wailed.

“I need my K!” said Duck. “Without it, I’m just Duc!”

“If we broke Duck,” Pig said nervously, “we might not be able to put him together again.”

“Noooooo!” wailed all the Ducks.

“I know what we need,” said Research Professor Sheep. “We need –“

She zipped off. Frog sighed. She zipped back wearing a long white C-O-A-T, a stethoscope, and a L-I-G-H-T on her head.

“—Surgeon Doctor Sheep!”

“Surgeon Doctor Sheep,” Frog repeated wearily.

“But I’m scared of doctors!” said Duck and Duck.

“It’s all right, Duck,” said Surgeon Doctor Sheep. “This is a very simple procedure. We just need to perform a pluralectomy.”

“A pluralectomy?” Duck said nervously.

“That sounds really, really scary,” added Duck.

“Don’t worry,” said Surgeon Doctor Sheep. “It will be over in a jiffy. All I need is – OH NO!” she gasped.

“What is it, Sheep?” asked Bear.

“I don’t have a scalpel!”

“But she can’t do a surgery without a scalpel!” cried Pig.

“It’s all right, Surgeon Doctor Sheep,” said Bear. “We can make you a scalpel. All we have to do is…”

“BUILD A WORD!” chorused the Word Friends.

“That’s right!” said Frog. “With the letters S, C, A, L, P, E, and L, we can MAKE a scalpel.”

“Come on!” said Bear.

“It’s time to build a word!” they sang, trooping off to find letters. “Let’s build it, let’s build it now!”

In no time at all, they had a jumble of letters. Frog did the honors. “S-C-A-L-P-E-L,” he spelled, laying the letters out. “Scalpel!” And then the scalpel was there. It gleamed in the light of the S-U-N.

“Noooo!” wailed Ducks piteously. Surgeon Doctor Sheep picked up the scalpel. Ducks all tried to hide behind one another again, leaving them once again huddled, heads together.

“This won’t hurt a bit,” promised Surgeon Doctor Sheep. She grabbed the stray S and sliced it neatly off Duck’s back.

*POP* *POP* *POP* *POP* *POP*

The six Ducks all slid in towards the center, collapsing in on themselves, leaving only one scared Duck, his wings held over his eyes. He spread his feathers, peeking out through them. “Is it over?” he asked.

“Yes, Duck,” said Frog. “How do you feel?”

“HA!” yelled Duck, jumping up and down. “I knew I was the real one!”

“I think we all learned an important lesson today,” said Bear.

“Yes,” said Pig. “Don’t let Duck play with letters.”

“No,” said Frog. “The real lesson is that the letter S can be a powerful tool for good, but is also dangerous.”

“Yes,” said Bear. “We should always be careful with the powerful forces of our world.”

“Also,” said Surgeon Doctor Sheep, “I look amazing in a lab coat.”

“Can we play basketball now?” asked Duck.

And they did.

T-H-E E-N-D


End file.
